270 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



enemy of the fox. He traps it, shoots it, and when 

 he can safely do so, lays poison in its paths. 



One of my amusements in long-gone school 

 vacations was to lie upon a green ledge of the crags 

 armed with an ancient flintlock, and from this point 

 of vantage deal death to the cubs as they came out 

 to play at the mouth of their den. The destruction 

 of the young is the farmer's method of keeping the 

 species within bounds, and is the only practical one. 



A few breeding sites supply a wide tract of country ; 

 and these, for the most part, are in quite inaccessible 

 fastnesses. There the cubs stay through the summer 

 until early autumn, being catered for in the mean- 

 time in the most assiduous manner. The mouth of 

 their earth is a perfect shambles, where every species 

 of native game is represented. Then there comes a 

 time when the playful family is taken by night to 

 the woods or the moor, and here, as harbour offers, 

 they abide till winter. Colonies may not infre- 

 quently be found among the heather, their vicinity 

 being marked by the heads and wings of grouse, 

 curlew, plover, dotterel and hares. Such a spot is 

 a very paradise of foxdom, and a perfect training- 

 ground for the cubs. They gambol about at twilight, 

 sending up clouds of fur and feather, evidently quite 

 unaware that this is the most critical period of their 

 lives. When found under such circumstances, a 

 stout stick and a couple of dogs soon enable the 



